Alleged missing court funds accounted for

Saturday

Apr 20, 2013 at 8:16 AMApr 20, 2013 at 8:18 AM

Judge Steele says funds Decker cited were received, deposited

Taylor Muller/@TaylorMullerKDE

An apparent $1,650 discrepancy on the amount collected in civil lawsuit fees for the county’s law library that was alleged during Friday’s State of the Judiciary was attributed to calendar circumstances by the fund’s overseer, Circuit Judge Russell Steele.

The matter surfaced during the annual judiciary address Friday morning when Circuit Clerk Linda Decker leveled allegations at Steele that he had created a “poisonous” workplace environment and refused to respond to her requests for information or discussion on various matters, including about $1,600 that went allegedly missing of the about $12,000 collected by the Adair County Circuit Clerk’s Office for the purposes of paying for the court’s law library in 2012.

“If open communication was a possibility in reference to [Steele’s] office, I would ask why his office reported to the Adair County Clerk that the Law Library Fund has received $10,530 in receipts, when my office issued the Law Library Fund checks totaling $12,180,” Decker said during the address Friday morning.

The Adair County Clerk’s Office, which handles and submits the county’s annual budget to the state, reported to the state that in 2012 the Law Library Fund received $10,530 in revenue.

Decker, however, said she had receipts totaling $12,180 that her office had received in Law Library fees and disbursed to the Circuit Court’s Office in 2012.

She said due to a “poor working relationship,” she was unable to obtain any information out of Steele’s office regarding the discrepancy since she discovered the difference in early March.

“There could be a multitude of explanations, maybe that it didn’t get deposited in that time frame, maybe it was deposited in the next year,” she said. “I know there are reasonable explanations.”

That calendar explanation was the one Steele gave when contacted at home later Friday afternoon. He said following the allegation in the morning, his office determined a check for about $1,600 had been sent to his office in December and deposited in the first week of 2013.

“That would explain it,” he said.

Steele, who said he did not have figures available for how much revenue his office received in Law Library fees from the circuit clerks in Adair, Knox and Lewis counties, defended his office and its practices, pointing to regular audits by the state at the same time the county goes under the microscope.

He did add he will be asking the state Office of Court Administrators to conduct an additional independent audit of the fund and issue its own report.

“I’m offended she would allege that something is happening with that fund,” he said.

In the second judicial circuit comprised of Adair, Knox and Lewis counties, civil lawsuits are subject to an up-to-$15 fee for the purposes of paying for the law library resources for the court as outlined by Missouri statute.

Decker’s allegation over the discrepancy centered solely on the fees collected and submitted in Adair County.

Steele said he believed that the Adair County Circuit Clerk’s Office was aware of the calendar circumstances and explanation for the difference and accused Decker of misrepresenting the situation.